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Malaysia Airlines plane missing with 239 on board

March 8, 2014

A Malaysia Airlines plane with 239 people on board went missing early Saturday while on its way to Beijing, the airline’s chief executive said.

"We deeply regret that we have lost all contact with flight MH370 which departed Kuala Lumpur at 12:41 am earlier [Friday] morning bound for Beijing," said Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, Malaysia Airlines group chief executive.

"The focus of the airline is to work with the emergency responders and authorities and mobilize its full support," he added. "Our thoughts and prayers are with all affected passengers and crew and their family members.

"Malaysia Airlines is currently working with the authorities who have activated their search and rescue team to locate the aircraft," he said.

The airline said in a statement that the flight was carrying a total of 227 passengers, including 2 infants, and 12 crew members.

Ahmad Jauhari said the passengers on board were composed of 14 nationalities, including 153 Chinese citizens, 38 Malaysians, three French nationals, four Americans and one each from Netherlands and Austria.

He said the missing plane was being flown by a veteran pilot who has been with Malaysia Airlines since 1981, logging a total of 18,365 flying hours.

The Chinese embassy in Malaysia formed an emergency team led by the ambassador to respond to the incident, the official Chinese Xinhua news agency said.

"We are very concerned. We hope everyone on the plane is safe," Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in Beijing.

"The plane has still not contacted our air traffic controllers," a spokeswoman for the Civil Aviation Administration of China told dpa in Beijing.

China has sent two search and rescue ships, China Central Television reported.Vietnamese authorities have also joined the search for the missing aircraft, the online newspaper VnExpress said.

A Vietnamese official denied that a signal had been received from the plane. The denial followed a report by the Chinese news agency Xinhua based on a Vietnamese report that a signal was picked up off southern Vietnam.

Pham Hien from Vietnam’s maritime search and rescue coordination center told the Xinhua news agency that the information was wrong.

"CCTV has confirmed with the rescue team from Vietnam that they have not yet detected the missing aircraft," China Central Television reported.

The Boeing 777-200 aircraft was expected to land in Beijing at 6:30 am Friday.